CBS Evening News: How an Alabama trooper’s traffic stop changed a woman’s life for the better [VIDEO]

Over the years, Steve Hartman from CBS Evening News has featured heartwarming features from Birmingham.

Who could ever forget the story he did about the little boy from Birmingham named  Austin Perine who dressed up in a cape, gave out sandwiches and reminded us all — “Don’t forget to show love!”

On Friday, September 6th Hartman was back in Birmingham again telling a story about a young woman whose life was changed by an Alabama state trooper who had pulled her over for speeding.

Read on to learn how some kind words and actions can make a big difference in a person’s life.

Speeding, a fateful meeting and a warning letter

Two years ago, 20-year-old Abbie Rutledge was pulled over by State Trooper J.T. Brown for speeding.

Rutledge told Brown — that she couldn’t afford a ticket because of her dead-end job and that she was broke.

Brown then did something out of the ordinary.

He said — “’Well, how about we talk about it then,'” Brown told CBS News.

They talked for about 10 to 15 minutes and concluded Rutledge would make a great nurse. 

Brown let her off with just a warning. And on it he wrote, 

“Promise me you’ll go to scrub or nursing school, and slow down, and I won’t give you a ticket.”

Rutledge took the message to heart after that fateful encounter and now two years later she has earned a two-year surgical technology degree at Bevill State Community College in Jasper, Alabama and works as a surgical technician at the University of Alabama Birmingham Hospital.

The CBS story concluded with Brown attending Rutledge’s graduation. In her hands was that warning letter with those encouraging words.

“She made my entire career worth it,” Brown said about Rutledge’s accomplishment.

Watch the CBS Evening News segment below:

Thank you Steve Hartman at CBS for once again featuring a side of Birmingham that makes us all proud to be a part of this special community.